Dépense estimée selon votre poids
Mouvement d'isolation · 3 s par répétition
| Répétitions | Dépense estimée |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0,23 kcal |
| 10 | 2,3 kcal |
| 20 | 4,6 kcal |
| 50 | 11,5 kcal |
| 100 | 23,0 kcal |
Estimation à partir des équivalents métaboliques (MET) du Compendium of Physical Activities. La charge, le tempo et la durée des repos font varier le résultat du simple au double : à lire comme un ordre de grandeur, pas comme une mesure.
Incline dumbbell press: which muscles it works
The incline dumbbell press is an exercise that targets the clavicular head of the pectoralis major, in other words the upper chest. The incline raises the pressing line. The weight travels up and forward, not straight up over the sternum.
The front delt does a lot of work on this movement. The triceps finish the elbow extension at the top of the press. The trunk muscles and lower back only stabilise.
Plenty of people call it the best exercise for building the upper chest. That's overstating it, but the idea holds: few movements put that much tension on the area with so little equipment. Two dumbbells and an adjustable bench and you're set.
In any gym, half the people set the bench at 45 degrees and then complain that their shoulders take everything. The problem is almost never the weight: it's the angle.
What bench angle to use
The bench angle question comes up more than any other. The available EMG research points to a useful zone between 15 and 30 degrees. Past that, front delt activation climbs and pec activation drops.
The steeper the bench, the more you're doing a disguised shoulder press. At 45 degrees, the shoulders become the main driver. At 10 degrees, you're basically doing a flat dumbbell press.
- 15 to 20 degrees: the most common compromise, chest-dominant
- 30 degrees: more upper chest, shoulders already heavily involved
- Over 40 degrees: save it for shoulder work
You can move the bench up one notch every other week to vary the angle of attack. That kind of rotation is hard to track in your head: it's exactly the sort of thing a structured training programme remembers for you.
How to perform the dumbbell incline press
Getting set up
Sit on the incline bench with your feet flat on the floor and the dumbbells resting on your thighs. Lie back while driving the weights up with your knees. Both hands end up in position without any wasted effort.
Squeeze your shoulder blades together and keep your torso tight. Keep the natural arch in your lower back. Don't lift your feet: they're part of your base.
The lowering phase
Lower slowly, over 2 to 3 seconds. Your elbows flare out but stay under your wrists, at roughly 45 degrees from your torso. That wider range of motion compared to a barbell is the main reason to use dumbbells.
Stop lowering once the dumbbells reach chest level. Going deeper doesn't recruit more fibres and puts needless strain on the shoulder.
The top of the press
Press up while bringing the dumbbells slightly closer together. At the top of the movement, don't try to clang them together: tension drops the moment your arms are vertical. Keep a slight bend in the elbows and go straight into the next rep.
Dumbbells or barbell: what actually changes
On paper the two versions are equal. The choice mostly comes down to your equipment and your shoulders.
| Criterion | Dumbbells | Barbell |
|---|---|---|
| Range of motion | Bigger | Limited |
| Max load | Lower | Higher |
| Imbalances | Corrected | Hidden |
| Safety training alone | Good | Average |
| Small increments | In jumps | By 1 kg |
Dumbbells are the pick when you train without a spotter: you can drop them to the sides with no risk. The barbell is still the better tool for going heavy and progressing kilo by kilo.
Load, sets and reps
Figure on a load per dumbbell of around 50 to 60% of your barbell bench press, divided by two. Someone benching 80 kg usually lands around 22 to 26 kg per arm on the incline press.
For hypertrophy, stick to 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps, with 90 seconds of rest. If you can't hit 8 clean reps, the weight is too heavy.
- Beginner: 10 to 14 kg per dumbbell
- Intermediate: 20 to 28 kg
- Advanced: 32 kg and up
These numbers are no substitute for tracking set by set. Logging the weight and reps of every session is what makes the difference over six months, and that's exactly what MUSCU's progress tracking handles.
Variations worth using
The single-arm incline dumbbell press is done one arm at a time. It takes longer but exposes the asymmetries the two-arm version hides.
A neutral grip, palms facing each other, reduces the load on the front of the shoulder. Useful if the standard version pulls. With no adjustable bench, propping your back against a stability ball or raising one end of a flat bench gives a rough but workable incline.
The most common mistakes
Setting the bench too steep is still mistake number one. Next comes letting the lower back come off the bench, which turns the movement into a decline press. Keeping your glutes in contact with the bench fixes it.
Last point: speed. A rushed up-and-down kills the eccentric phase, the one that causes the most useful muscle damage. Slow the lowering down before you add weight. If you're unsure how much volume to programme around this exercise, the available plans include session generation matched to your level.